ATM the Bulls academy is worthless , if it as good as has been suggested most if not all players and coaches will move on elsewhere

No point growing something of you cannot protect it from the crows , let it go

And be left with ... what?

On a wider issue, one absolute disgrace is the complicity of the clubs and the RFL in not making academy and reserve sides compulsory.

Of course, that's because the clubs with backers don't need them, they just poach players prepared by others, but just losing thereserve competition instantly halved the number of full time jobs available for top level players, and not having your own academy setup is so barking I don't need to even comment. But I will. If it costs £250K to run one, then it should be compulsory that the FIRST 250K of a club's expenditure is ringfenced to pay for its academy. If that means 2 or 3 less expensive first-teamers then so be it.

Let's look at the latest SL club , Leigh , genuinely which pick of players could Leigh have had to get in the last 20 years ? , given with Wigan,Saints and Warrington on our doorstep ? , even if we had uncovered a late starter , we'd get what in return ?

The 1 st ring fenced expenditure of a club should be its non playing wages and functioning costs including playing bills and VAT , last comes playing wages , be they 1 st team or academy

Sorry but that's the way it is

If every club shared that view then the sport in this country would die. I know that's an extreme example and unlikely, but still true.

What [ishould[/i be happening is the RFL should be generating more publicity for rugby league, increasing public awareness and thereby increasing government funding in return. This would then be distributed to all clubs for the sole purpose of running academy setups.

I think you're missing my point. If you have 24 Academy sides then you have 24 sets of academy rugby league players. If no team runs an academy side, how many young players do you have in the game then?

PS of course I wasn't suggesting not paying tax etc., as you surely know; I was saying that you pay for your academy at the expense of your first team costs.

24 academy sides takes probably 40% of the juniors you have playing the sport , quite simply decimating the amateur teams at that age group , all that would achieve is having teams filled with players who are just cannon fodder for the elite few

RL needs about 10 SL academies to bring through the best , if your aren't there , there is no point , you will not retain any talent you produce

What RL needs is more kids playing the game fullstop. It needs the pathway to exist from junior rugby right up through open age amateur to full professional.

Take out the pathway from Bradford that the club did very well to embed in the past 2 years and you have a much poorer game. Inferior setups at nearby clubs don't make the same effort and they're unlikely to bother with Bradford. The game is poorer as a result.

Talking to one of the academy lads earlier today. Said he's now without a club and at the moment hasn't got other options. Apparently they have some kind of meeting later today about it, but I asked him what his plans were if there was no Bradford academy and no offers from elsewhere. His answer was to go back to playing football. That's just the one I spoke to, but if that's the solution to promising young lads who aren't picked up because of a lack of academies in the area, that's players lost to the game surely?

Of course it is.

He'd better find a soccer club soon or he'll be getting smashed playing for the Northern Bull Liquidisers at Hull KR in 4 weeks

E-mail just received from Bullbuilder: Quote Paul Butterworth="Paul Butterworth"I have just attended at meeting with the Bulls Academy and Scholarship Players & Parents, Paul Medley from the RFL spoke. As we know the RFL are speaking with potential buyers of the Bulls one of the main criteria that will be considered as part of any proposal will be maintaining the Academy Structure. You will also be aware of BullBuilder and the Foundations fund raising efforts to support players and staff. After the meeting tonight Academy and Scholarship Players & Parents held a collection to help and raised £280.87 for our cause. With this and https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/welfarefund to date £1227 has been raised. THANK YOU Paul'"

E-mail just received from Bullbuilder: Quote Paul Butterworth="Paul Butterworth"I have just attended at meeting with the Bulls Academy and Scholarship Players & Parents, Paul Medley from the RFL spoke. As we know the RFL are speaking with potential buyers of the Bulls one of the main criteria that will be considered as part of any proposal will be maintaining the Academy Structure. You will also be aware of BullBuilder and the Foundations fund raising efforts to support players and staff. After the meeting tonight Academy and Scholarship Players & Parents held a collection to help and raised £280.87 for our cause. With this and https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/welfarefund to date £1227 has been raised. THANK YOU Paul'"

So any future Bulls owner has to commit to funding an Academy?

Yet Koucash can close Salford's Academy and nothing gets said by the RFL

Priceless

I see your point but i see it as a massive plus that email. That really has given me a lift with more mood raging from depressed to rage recently. Insisting on an academy being funded so sort out civ out the pretenders in this bidding process